Thinking Upstream About Ideas and Human Rights

My other blog Thinking Upstream, about ideas and human rights, is based on online news of some of the bloggers and journalists who remain unjustly imprisoned in several countries. As one blogger among many, I hope to draw attention to the people mentioned, urging that we each seek peaceful ways to secure their freedom. They have been hurt by authoritarianism and its cruel repression, and by those who execute that repression or gain from it. I have no experience of the countries mentioned, but am convinced of the accuracy of the news, by the variety of reputable publications, to which I refer in the hyper-links of my posts. I blog about human rights because: all freedoms and rights are fragile, and at risk of being lost, if we are even a little careless. Thinking Upstream is now a PDF file on Scribd.com for easy offline reading, even in places where Friendster is blocked. I used Google Translate to machine-translate it into various languages, also in PDF format on Scribd.com.Thinking Upstream is at: http://cmcallister.blog.friendster.com/. Your comments are welcome.
The image refers to United Nations' Article 19, and contains photos of victims of repression.

Ferrymen at Bako National Park

Ferrymen waiting to return visitors home from a rain forest trek at Bako National Park in Sarawak, Malaysia.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

I wish my friends a prosperous and happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai. This holiday coincides with the end of rainy season, which has been a bad one in Sarawak. Term is starting at the universities and we will be expected to work like oxen in the Year Of The Ox.

Universities and Transport in Sarawak Malaysia

As a newcomer to Sarawak, transport was a big problem for me, so I bought a scooter. You can buy a used scooter in Malaysia for MYR 3000 or less. Motorcycling is not without risk, so always were a helmet. I fell off and broke a couple of ribs. If you can afford MYR 10,000 to 25,000, you could buy an old car when you arrive. I taught Physics at Curtin University near Miri, and have just started working at Swinburne University in Kuching, lecturing in Computing and Design. If you live on campus, you will have less worry about transport and housing. Kuching is a GREAT city, much smaller than KL and much bigger than Miri. It's too early for me to comment on Swinburne University, except to say that I am impressed by the facilities, which are in a down town location. If you are looking for a more rural campus, I recommend Curtin University near Miri, Sarawak. Related groups on Facebook are Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak) and Curtin University of Technology Sarawak Campus. There is a bus service from Curtin University, via the Senadin suburb to Miri city center.

Discuss Mathematics on Friendster?

All are welcome to join the "Mirimatics" group at Friendster.com. An unofficial online forum for discussing: mathematics and popular or obscure stories about mathematics, fact or fiction.

Mirimatics Topic List:

• Does the use of examples make learning mathematics more difficult?
• Statistical Evidence on the need for Helmet Laws
• Where can undergraduates publish mathematics research?
• Does Bistromathics explain the global financial slowdown?
• Open License makes OpenGL Graphics Library more available
• Is your aptitude for mathematics being neglected and wasted?
• Interested in the mathematics of computer games?

I use Friendster.com because it is popular in Asia. I also opened the "Sarawak Science" group, an unofficial forum for discussing science. I blog on Friendster at "Thinking Upstream".

Sabah, Malaysia has the Worlds Longest Insects

A 56.7cm long stick insect, of the previously unknown species "Phobaeticus chani", was discovered by a Sabah resident in 1989, and given to Malaysian amateur naturalist Datuk Chan Chew Lun. Not including its legs, the insect’s body measures 35.7cm. The specimen is on display in the Natural History Museum in England. Read the N.H.M. article "World's longest insect revealed" for more details. It says "The world's longest insect, a 56.7cm long stick-insect from Borneo, is revealed at the Natural History Museum today." British scientist Dr Philip Bragg described and named this stick-insect and details are in the journal Zootaxa. As noted by Chan Chew Lin, in The Encyclopedia of Malaysia, "Probably 200-250 species of these (leaf and stick insects) inhabit the rainforests of Malaysia." In addition to discovering new species, Chan Chew Lun is chief editor of the Natural History Publications series. Reference and insect photo from http://www.welt.de/english-news/.

Yukawa's Pionymous Legacy

Physicists Hideki Yukawa (1907-1981), Shoichi Sakata, Mitsuo Taketani, Richard Feynman, Enrico Fermi, Murray Gell-Mann and many others of their generation laid the foundations for the science of fundamental particles. Particle physicists of the early 20th century theorised and discovered pions, muons and quarks, the subatomic components of matter. The science was encapsulated in the Standard Model of Physics which evolved in the early 1970's. The three winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2008 were recognised for their contribution to the Standard Model. Their discoveries explain the broken symmetry in subatomic physics, and the vast difference between the amount of matter and antimatter in the universe. The Standard Model has been well tested, at places like Fermilab (named after Enrico Fermi) and CERN. The experiments can be as grand as the Large Hadron Collider, or as simple as releasing a balloon into the upper atmosphere to detect cosmic-rays. In 1935, Yukawa realised that particles were responsible for carrying the nuclear force between the protons and neutrons in the nucleus. The pion (pi meson) particle predicted by Yukawa was discovered in 1947. Yukawa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1949 for this prediction. Quarks and pions occur within the atomic nucleus. One of the 2008 Nobel Prize winners, Yoichiro Nambu, proposed the gluon particle, which carries the colour between quarks. The search for fundamental particles continues today in the hunt for the Higgs boson, a particle that is required to explain symmetry-breaking. The Yukawa Institute of Theoretical Physics at Kyoto University is named after Hideki Yukawa. Toshihide Maskawa, one of the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2008, is a Professor Emeritus at the Yukawa Institute.